LGA Airport

New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)

About LGA Airport
New York’s three primary airports consist of LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark. Of the three, LaGuardia is the smallest, yet the most popular choice due to its central location and closeness to Manhattan. At one time it was voted the “greatest airport in the world” by the aviation community; unfortunately, today it has the worst reputation for passenger satisfaction.

Of all the airports in the US lacking non-stop service to Europe, LaGuardia is the busiest. Aside from flights on Saturdays, there is a perimeter rule in effect that prohibits incoming and outgoing flights that exceed 1,500 miles. Because of this, the majority of transcontinental and international flights are diverted to JFK and Newark.

Location
LaGuardia borders the areas of Astoria, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights in the northern part of Queens County, New York. It is situated on the bays of Flushing and Bowery.

History
The current site for LGA was previously Gala Amusement Park. In 1929, the land was transformed into a private flying field before NYC’s mayor at the time, Fiorello La Guardia, demanded support for a new airport in their city. Extra real estate was given to the future airport, including four hangars, and the nation’s first Admirals Club.

1939 and the airport opened for business under the name New York Municipal Airport at a $23 million cost. The public became very intrigued with air travel at that time, and so the airport charged a dime to visitors wanting to view planes come in and out of the airport. Two years later, the airport was an enormous financial success.

Find Transportation To/From LGA Airport

Despite being a large airport for its time, LaGuardia became too small for the amount of traffic it started to attract, and expansion was inevitable. Today, plans to completely demolish and rebuild the airport have been explored. This would create a completely unified and modern plan for the airport and staged in separate phases to maintain operations out of LGA.

Services
The top domestic routes out of LGA include the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale and Dallas. Over 25 airlines operate out of the airport and provide both international and domestic travel to passengers. Delta handles the most of the airport’s domestic passengers, while Air Canada handles the majority of international travelers.


 

*Information accuracy not guaranteed.